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Muslims worldwide will celebrate one of their biggest holidays under the long shadow of the coronavirus, with millions confined to their homes and others gripped by economic concerns during what is usually a festive time of shopping and celebration.
The three-day Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan for the world’s 1.8bn Muslims. People usually celebrate by travelling, visiting family and gathering for lavish meals, all of which will be largely prohibited as authorities try to prevent new virus outbreaks. The holiday will begin on Saturday or Sunday, depending on the sighting of the new moon, and the dawn-to-dusk fasting of Ramadan will come to an end.
Some countries, including Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, will impose round-the-clock curfews for the holiday. In Saudi Arabia, home to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, people will be allowed to leave their homes only to buy food and medicine.
Most restrictions have been lifted in Jerusalem, but the Al-Aqsa mosque compound – the third holiest site in Islam – will remain closed until. Shopkeepers in the Old City, empty of tourists and pilgrims since March, are reeling from the six weeks of lockdown.
In Egypt, authorities have extended the curfew, which will now begin at 5pm instead of 9pm, and halted public transportation until 29 May. Shopping centres, malls, beaches and parks will be closed.
In Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country, the president, Joko Widodo, said restrictions would remain in place through the holiday. The country, with a population of 270m, has reported more than 18,000 cases, including about 1,200 deaths. Since the start of the Ramadan, the government has imposed an outright ban on “mudik”, a holiday tradition in which millions of Indonesians living in big cities flock to their home towns to celebrate with relatives. Health experts had warned it could set off a wave of new cases.
Updated
Brazil beats Russia in coronavirus cases, second only to US
Brazil overtook Russia on Friday in terms of the number of coronavirus cases, Reuters reports, having registered 330,890 people who have contracted the virus – second only to the United States. Brazil registered 1,001 daily coronavirus deaths on Friday, taking the total deaths to 21,048, according to the health ministry. However, the true numbers – both of cases and deaths – is probably higher as Latin America’s top economy has been slow to ramp up testing.
Meanwhile Brazil’s environment minister, Ricardo Salles, called on the government to push through further deregulation of environmental policy while people are distracted by the coronavirus pandemic, in a video the supreme court ordered to be released. The video of a ministers’ meeting surfaced in an investigation of whether the president, Jair Bolsonaro, interfered in appointing leaders of the federal police for personal gain.
During the meeting, other ministers spoke, including Salles, with environmental groups saying his remarks prove that the Bolsonaro government is systematically seeking to dismantle environmental protections. “We need to make an effort while we are in this calm moment in terms of press coverage, because they are only talking about Covid, and push through and change all the rules and simplify norms,” Salles said in the video.
Deforestation hit an 11-year high last year and has increased 55% in the first four months of the year, compared with a year ago, with environmentalists blaming Bolsonaro’s policies.
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Travellers arriving in Britain will face 14 days’ quarantine from next month to prevent a second coronavirus outbreak, the government announced on Friday, warning that anyone breaking the rules faced a fine or prosecution.
The new rules will apply to all international arrivals except Ireland from 8 June and come after weeks of calls for tougher restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19. Healthcare professionals travelling to work in the crisis, seasonal agricultural workers and those working in freight and road haulage, among others, will be exempt.
“We want to reduce the risk of imported cases being introduced into the UK,” the home secretary, Priti Patel, told the government’s daily media briefing.
Patel said the measure would be reviewed every three weeks, adding: “We are not shutting down completely. We are not closing our borders. What we are seeking to do is control the spread of the virus because we do not want a second wave of this virus.”
The quarantine move is controversial, especially with the aviation sector, where flights have been grounded and passenger numbers slumped. France also expressed disappointment that despite initial reassurances it would not be exempt from the plan.
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Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom have issued a joint statement expressing deep concern at proposals from China for introducing legislation related to national security in Hong Kong that will impinge on civil liberties.
“Making such a law on Hong Kong’s behalf without the direct participation of its people, legislature or judiciary would clearly undermine the ‘one country, two systems’ principle under which Hong Kong is guaranteed a high degree of autonomy,” the statement says.
'Extraordinary' boom for NZ bookshops
New Zealand bookshops are experiencing an “extraordinary” boom in New Zealand as Kiwis commit to buying local to resuscitate the economy after seven weeks of lockdown. Eleanor Ainge-Roy writes that many readers have sworn off shopping offshore after the Covid-19 crisis, which claimed 21 lives in New Zealand.
“People are really thinking about where they want to spend their money and the businesses they love. They got a taste of what it was like if you weren’t there,” says Jenna Todd of Time Out bookstore in Mt Eden, Auckland.
Libraries have also benefited from the book boom, with borrowers queuing round the block.
There have been no new cases of the virus in New Zealand since 19 May1.
Meanwhile, the finance minister, Grant Robertson, has said the government is considering distributing free cash directly to individuals as a way of policy stimulus to help boost the economy.
“I am pretty keen on making sure that fiscal policy remains the role of the government,” he said.
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Good morning, Melissa Davey here in Melbourne, taking over from Kevin Rawlinson in London to continue bringing you updates from around the world.
While many countries are still struggling to contain the virus, here in Australia people are heading into the weekend with more freedom to visit cafes, travel throughout their state or territory and visit friends and family. Restrictions are loosening at different rates around the country, with just over 500 active cases. There have been 101 deaths.
State leaders continue to spar over the refusal of some premiers to reopen state borders as debates continue over when interstate travel should resume. It prompted the federal home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, who describes himself as a “proud Queenslander”, to weigh in on Friday, telling people in that state to test whether the border closures were allowed by the constitution.
“People are right to test that if they think it’s not [allowed by the constitution] because it’s affecting people’s lives,” he said. “I’m not taking advice from people south of the border at all, but I believe it’s in Queensland’s best interests, given that we are a mining state, we’re a tourism state, and we want to get people back to work.”
Dutton’s comments came as the federal government blamed employers incorrectly filling in a form for massively overestimating the size of the jobkeeper payment scheme. The error between the number of employees businesses estimated would be covered by the scheme and the actual amount receiving the payment means the scheme will cover 3.5 million workers, down from 6.5 million.
It makes this exchange particularly interesting:
This was Deputy Treasurer Michael Sukkar last week when asked by @Raf_Epstein whether the Federal Government would consider expanding #jobkeeper #auspol @sclark_melbs pic.twitter.com/6FNMhDOBKk
— Will Jackson (@thegreywiggle) May 22, 2020
It will also cost about $70bn, not $130bn. The government is so far resisting calls from Labor to extend the payment to casuals and those workers who were not eligible for the payment.
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Indigenous organisations in Brazil have protested against the inclusion in a bill on emergency assistance to tribes in the pandemic of a paragraph authorising Christian missionaries to remain in indigenous communities.
It provides rapid Covid-19 tests, medicine and food to indigenous communities while allowing them to control access to their territories to avoid the spread of virus.
But in an inclusion called “sneaky” by critics, the bill said evangelising missionaries that are already in indigenous communities could stay subject to medical exams. The largest umbrella organisation representing Amazon indigenous tribes, COIAB, said:
We absolutely reject this attempt to allow access of missionaries to indigenous territories here there are isolated tribes.
COIAB said the presence of evangelizing missionaries has historically brought “tragedy and death” to indigenous people in the Amazon, and was a particular threat to isolated tribes that have only entered recent contact with Brazilian society.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has treated 1,300 coronavirus patients with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which a study has tied to an increased risk of death.
The Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who received the information from the VA in response to questions he submitted on the issue, said he was “deeply troubled” by the data.
The US president Donald Trump has urged use of hydroxychloroquine against the virus and recently said he has been taking it himself, despite evidence that the treatment could be harmful.
A study published on Friday in the medical journal Lancet tied the drug to an increased risk of death in hospitalised patients with Covid-19.
Summary
Here’s a summary of the latest news:
- The global known death toll has passed 335,000 people. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, at least 5,178,911 people have become infected, while at least 336,404 have died around the world. The figures, which are based on official releases and media reports, are likely to significantly underestimate the true scale of the pandemic.
- South America has become a new centre of the pandemic, the World Health Organization has said. Brazil is hardest-hit, while cases are rising in some African countries that so far have a relatively low death toll. “In a sense South America has become a new epicentre for the disease,” Dr Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergencies expert, says; adding that Brazil is “clearly the most affected”.
- In the UK, police have spoken to the prime minister’s key adviser Dominic Cummings about breaching the government’s lockdown rules. Cummings was seen in Durham, 264 miles from his London home, despite having had symptoms of coronavirus. Officers approached him days after he was seen rushing out of Downing Street when the prime minister tested positive for the virus at the end of March, a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Mirror has found.
- Peru has extended its state of emergency until the end of June. The country introduced only a very partial lifting of its lockdown as infections continue to climb despite more than two months of confinement. Peru is the second-worst affected Latin American country, with more than 111,000 cases and a death toll of 3,148, according to official figures.
- Iceland is set to lower its national emergency rating on Monday. Authorities say there are just two people left in isolation waiting to recover from their infections. Iceland has recorded 1,803 confirmed cases, with 10 people having died and 1,791 having recovered.
The spread of coronavirus has been catastrophic in Brazil, with the country now ranking third for infections behind only the US and Russia. The infection rate has been growing rapidly in Latin America, and as global infections passed 5m, Brazil reported a record 19,951 cases on 20 May, according to the ministry of health, taking total infections to 291,579.
From a sceptical president to a healthcare system on the verge of collapse, the Guardian’s Tom Phillips explains the factors that have put Brazil at risk of becoming the next hotspot for the virus:
In the UK, a source close to the No 10 adviser Dominic Cummings has indicated he does not intend to resign after it emerged police spoke to him about breaching the government’s lockdown rules.
The anonymous source’s quote was given to the Press Association after Downing Street refused to offer any official comment.
Earlier this month, a senior government resigned after it emerged he had flouted lockdown rules. At the time, the health secretary Matt Hancock declared himself “speechless” and said he would back any action the police chose to take against Prof Neil Ferguson.
The placentas of 16 pregnant women found to have Covid-19 during routine testing at a Chicago hospital all showed evidence of injury, indicating that women infected with coronavirus may need close monitoring during pregnancy, researchers have said.
Of the group, 15 delivered healthy babies, while one miscarried. None of the live babies tested positive for Covid-19.
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, found that 12 of the women, or 80%, had a type of injury that can impair blood flow from the mother to the foetus called vascular malperfusion. Six of them, or 40%, had blood clots in the placenta. A historical comparison group showed vascular malperfusion in 55% of patients and placental blood clots in 9% of cases.
The research involved women who gave birth at Northwestern Medicine Prentice Women’s Hospital between 18 March and 5 May. Dr Jeffrey Goldstein, a Northwestern pathologist and study author, told Reuters:
These findings support that there might be something clot-forming about coronavirus, and it’s happening in the placenta.
Peru has extended its state of emergency until the end of June with only a very partial lifting of its lockdown as infections continue to climb despite more than two months of confinement.
Peru is the second-worst affected Latin American country, with more than 111,000 cases and a death toll of 3,148, according to official figures.
The daily number of new infections peaked at 4,550 earlier this week, despite one of the region’s strictest lockdowns.
Peru’s president Martín Vizcarra implored Peruvians to comply with quarantine measures in a country where the majority work in the informal, unregulated economy.
It’s not just an extension ... there is a strategy to combat the virus. This disease will not beaten in a short time. It’s not a 100m sprint, it’s a marathon.
Peru has struggled to cope with fierce outbreaks in its northern and Amazon regions, particularly in the city of Iquitos. And it is hindered by a weak and historically underfunded health sector.
The country’s health ministry will double the number of hospital beds to 20,000, and intensive care beds from 1,000 to 2,000, Vizcarra pledged. Field hospitals were under construction in the capital Lima and in Covid-19 hotspots across the country.
Over the course of the last 60 days we have made great efforts but we have to make another qualitative jump in the health sector.
The slightly relaxed quarantine rules will allow online shopping for clothes and domestic products. Some sporting activities, such as professional football, will restart but matches will be played in empty stadiums.
France regrets a British decision to impose a quarantine on people arriving from mainland Europe and stands ready to impose reciprocal measures, the Agence France-Presse news agency has quoted the country’s interior ministry as saying.
The UK’s home secretary Priti Patel announced earlier on Friday that travellers arriving in the UK from 8 June will have to tell the authorities where they will be staying and face spot checks to ensure they quarantine themselves for 14 days.
People arriving from Ireland will be exempt, but not those coming from mainland Europe.
In the UK, the opposition Labour party is demanding a “very swift explanation” from Downing Street as it emerges that police spoke to Boris Johnson’s senior aide Dominic Cummings about breaching the government’s lockdown rules.
If accurate, the prime minister’s chief adviser appears to have breached the lockdown rules. The government’s guidance was very clear: Stay at home and no non-essential travel.
The British people do not expect there to be one rule for them and another rule for Dominic Cummings. No 10 needs to provide a very swift explanation for his actions.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 1,089 more deaths and 20,522 new cases of infection, taking the totals in the nation to 94,150 and 1,571,617, respectively.
Police spoke to Downing Street adviser after trip during lockdown
In the UK, police have spoken to the prime minister’s key adviser Dominic Cummings about breaching the government’s lockdown rules after he was seen in Durham, 264 miles from his London home, despite having had symptoms of coronavirus.
Officers approached him days after he was seen rushing out of Downing Street when the prime minister tested positive for the virus at the end of March, a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Mirror has found.
At the time, the government had instructed people not to travel and to stay at their family homes. Cummings, however, was seen in Durham. A member of the public is understood to have seen him and made a complaint to the police.
Downing Street has previously refused to disclose where Cummings was staying during the lockdown.
Updated
Chile’s president, Sebastian Piñera, has kicked off a programme to provide support for families struggling during the pandemic.
About 2.5m packages of food and hygiene products will be distributed over the weekend to families in Santiago before the scheme expands to other parts of the country. Piñera said:
It is a support and relief for millions and millions of Chilean families who need urgent help.
However, poorer communities claim they are not receiving the support they need to survive during the pandemic, with many unable to work as parts of the country approach a second month of strict lockdown measures. Among those most affected are the 30% of the Chilean workforce who make up the country’s informal economy.
Unrest broke out earlier this week in several parts of the country over hunger, most notably in the Santiago district El Bosque, when dozens of people took to the street to express their desperation.
Police swiftly arrived, leading to violent clashes between police and protesters.
“After four weeks of quarantine, despair and hunger begin to appear,” said the mayor of El Bosque, Sadi Melo Moya, who condemned the police’s heavy-handed reaction.
The hunger protests have led to the emergence of dozens of makeshift soup kitchens in the city’s working-class neighbourhoods, where communities have united under the mantra “only the people help the people”.
Videos circulating on social media show police interrupting community support efforts, confiscating donated goods and shutting down soup kitchens.
The police denied accusations of excessive repression, claiming one of the gatherings filmed required intervention as it had “initiated disorder” and did not respect the quarantine.
Chile’s former president and the current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said: “It is key to generate important mechanisms for social protection.”
Updated
A Berlin church is hosting Muslims who are unable to fit into their mosque for Friday prayers because of physical distancing guidelines, Reuters reports.
The Dar Assalam mosque in the Neukölln district normally welcomes hundreds of Muslims to its Friday services. But it can only accommodate 50 people at a time under Germany’s restrictions.
During Ramadan, the nearby Martha Lutheran church stepped in to help, hosting Muslim prayers in Arabic and German.
“It is a great sign and it brings joy in Ramadan and joy amid this crisis,” said Mohamed Taha Sabry, the mosque’s imam, who led his congregation in prayer watched over by a stained-glass window depicting the Virgin Mary. “This pandemic has made us a community. Crises bring people get together.”
Places of worship reopened in Germany on 4 May after being shut for weeks, but worshippers must maintain a minimum distance from one another of 1.5 metres.
The church, a red-brick neo-Renaissance building in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district could hardly offer a sharper contrast to the cultural centre in Neukölln where the Muslim congregation is accustomed to gathering. One worshipper, Samer Hamdoun, said:
It was a strange feeling because of the musical instruments, the pictures. But, when you look, when you forget the small details. This is the House of God in the end.
The Islamic Council, an umbrella group of 400 mosques, said in April that many face bankruptcy because the closures stretched into the holy fasting month of Ramadan, usually a vital period for donations.
The church’s pastor, Monika Matthias, said she had felt moved by the Muslim call to prayer.
I took part in the prayer. I gave a speech in German. And during prayer, I could only say yes, yes, yes, because we have the same concerns and we want to learn from you. And it is beautiful to feel that way about each other.
Updated
South America is now pandemic's centre – WHO
South America has become a new centre of the pandemic, with Brazil hardest-hit, while cases are rising in some African countries that so far have a relatively low death toll, the World Health Organization has said.
“In a sense South America has become a new epicentre for the disease,” Dr Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergencies expert, told a news conference, adding Brazil is “clearly the most affected”.
Ryan noted Brazilian authorities have approved broad use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine. He reiterated that current clinical evidence does not support the unproven drug’s widespread use against the new disease, given its risks.
Some nine African countries had 50% rises in cases in the past week, while others have seen a decline or have stable rates, Ryan said. The low mortality rate may be due to half of the continent’s population being 18 years old or younger, he said, adding he still is worried the disease will spread on a continent with “significant gaps” in intensive care services, medical oxygen and ventilation.
Updated
Summary
Key developments in the global coronavirus outbreak today include:
- About 80 million infants may have missed out on vaccines for diseases including diphtheria, measles and polio as a result of the disruption to healthcare services caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization says.
- Fighting has forced 660,000 people to flee their homes since the UN secretary general called for a global ceasefire to focus on handling the pandemic, an NGO says. The Norwegian Refugee Council says the UN security council has failed to provide leadership for ceasefires during the pandemic.
- Two-week quarantines will be imposed on new arrivals to the UK from 8 June, with a £1,000 fine awaiting anyone who breaches the measure. The home secretary, Priti Patel, announces that mandatory self-isolation would not apply to people coming from Ireland
- The UK’s coronavirus epidemic is “either flat or declining ... and in most areas it is declining,” said thegovernment’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance. He said the country’s coronavirus R0 number - the number of people to whom each infected person passes the virus - is between 0.7 and 1.
- The 54 countries in Africa have collectively identified more than 100,000 cases of infection, according to figures collated by the Africa Centres for Disease Control. There have so far been 3,101 deaths across the continent.
- Germany’s tax revenues for April fell by a quarter compared to the same month last year. According to the finance ministry’s monthly report, the central government and the 16 federal states pulled in about €39bn (£34.87bn).
- The Madrid region and the Barcelona metropolitan area will be able to move into the next phase of lockdown de-escalation from Monday, the Spanish government says. The two regions have been the areas hardest hit by Covid-19.
- One of Europe’s biggest music events, Exit festival in Serbia, has been rescheduled for August. Originally meant to take place in July in Novi Sad, the fate of the festival was uncertain. But, as Serbia emerges from its lockdown, its prime minister, Ana Brnabić, said the event can take place after all.
That’s it from me, Damien Gayle, for another day. I’ll be back tomorrow.
The British Grand Prix faces a race against time to resolve the problem created by the government’s imposition of quarantine on all people arriving in the UK, writes Giles Richards for the Guardian’s sports desk.
The chances of the race at Silverstone being held look increasingly slim but Formula One is understood to be remaining in a dialogue with the government in an attempt to find a solution.
F1 has yet to comment and is studying the full quarantine document before entering further talks with the government. As things stand, with F1 denied any exemption from the quarantine procedures, not only is the British GP under threat but the sport faces an increasingly complex challenge as it attempts to create and implement a new calendar for the 2020 season.
Updated
Human rights activists in Zimbabwe have accused the country’s police and other officials of more than 200 violations linked to the country’s coronavirus lockdown.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, a coalition of 20 rights groups, said it had petitioned the country’s police chief and home affairs minister over escalating rights abuses, according to AFP.
“About 245 violations … have been recorded since the start of the lockdown,” Jestina Mukoko, who chairs the coalition, told reporters in Harare.
The forum is “appalled and outraged by the continued human rights violations that are openly taking place in Zimbabwe and perpetrated by the members of the … police”, Mukoko said.
The monitors in particular called on police to launch a criminal investigation into the “abduction and torture” of a lawmaker from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and two other senior party officials.
They said the women, who were arrested after flash demonstrations over food shortages, were taken by unidentified men and driven several miles out of town, beaten up, sexually assaulted and dumped by a roadside.
Zimbabwe has so far recorded 51 cases of coronavirus, including four deaths. Last weekend the president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, said a lockdown imposed on March 30 to control the spread of the virus would stay in place for the moment, but be reviewed every two weeks.
Updated
Iceland is set to lower its national emergency rating on Monday, as authorities said there were just two people left in isolation waiting to recover from their coronavirus infections.
The north Atlantic island state, which acted quickly to contain its outbreak, has so far recorded 1,803 confirmed cases of coronavirus. Ten people have died and 1,791 have recovered.
Iceland’s chief epidemiologist, Þórólfur Guðnason, has reportedly submitted proposals to now significantly ease Covid-19 restrictions, including reopening bars and permitting gatherings of up to 200 people.
Updated
With rising uncertainty around the coronavirus pandemic and most of the world still practising physical distancing, people are finding new ways to keep each others’ spirits up.
From a llama delivering essentials to older people, drive-in concerts and Capt Tom Moore’s reaction to a knighthood, these are the week’s most uplifting clips
Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, has not been seen publicly in the 24 hours since Russian state media said he had been hospitalised in Moscow with coronavirus symptoms, writes Andrew Roth, the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent.
While online sleuths have sought to track planes or motorcades that may have ferried Chechnya’s leader in Moscow, local officials have either declined to give information about his whereabouts or health, or have opted to troll journalists who have asked.
Experts on the region said that Kadyrov’s status was unclear but that hiding an illness would fit a wider strategy of minimising problems in Chechnya, particularly when reporting to the Kremlin.
“Kadyrov is a hostage of his own PR, he is caught by his own approach, which doesn’t allow him to recognise problems in Chechnya,” said Grigory Shvedov, the editor of the Caucasian Knot, an independent news agency reporting on the North Caucasus region. “He reports to the Kremlin that everything is fine in Chechnya … and he is a hostage of this report.”
Updated
Italy recorded 130 new deaths from Covid-19 epidemic on Friday against 156 the day before, the civil protection agency said, while the daily tally of new cases rose marginally to 652, from 642 on Thursday, Reuters reports.
The total death toll now stands at 32,616, the agency said, the third highest in the world after those of the US and Britain.
However, statisticians believe Italy, like many other countries, has had considerably more deaths from the virus than its official data suggests, because many casualties were never tested.
A study this week by Italy’s social security agency, INPS, showed there were almost 47,000 more deaths between 1 March and 30 April than in the average for the same period over the previous five years.
Updated
Senior government officials in Russia have said the country will experience a sharp rise in mortality figures for May, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread.
“There will be a significant mortality increase in May,” the deputy prime minister, Tatiana Golikova, was quoted by AFP as saying at a government meeting with the president, Vladimir Putin, referring to official analysis and the country’s coronavirus curve.
“The illness and chronic conditions don’t always have a positive ending,” Golikova said, despite doctors trying to “save the maximum number of patients.”
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, also said the number of Covid-19 death in the city for May would be “considerably higher than in April”.
Russia registered 150 deaths from the coronavirus on Friday, its highest daily rate yet, amid criticism that the authorities are under-reporting the virus fatalities to play down the scale of the crisis.
Health officials have reported a total of 3,249 virus-related deaths, a fraction of the number in some European countries, while Russia has the second-highest number of infections in the world, after the US, with 326,448 cases.
Updated
Germany has announced a series of reforms of the country’s meat industry, including a ban on the use of subcontractors and fines of €30,000 (£26,000) for companies breaching labour regulations, as slaughterhouses have emerged as coronavirus hotspots, writes Holly Young in Berlin.
A number of meat plants across the country have temporarily closed after hundreds of workers tested positive for Covid-19 in recent weeks.
This week more than 90 workers were reported to have fallen ill at a plant in Dissen, Lower Saxony. Following an outbreak at a plant in Coesfeld, where more than 270 out of 1,200 workers tested positive, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia announced mass testing of industry employees.
An outbreak at a plant in Bavaria in the district of Straubing-Bogen coincides with numbers of infections reaching the “emergency break” level of 50 cases per 100,000 residents. States passing this point are allowed to reimpose lockdown restrictions.
“The corona outbreaks have not surprised us at all,” said Jonas Bohl, from the German Food, Beverages and Catering Union. “Rather the surprise was that they took a while to emerge.
“The people not only work closely together but more importantly they live together, in very cramped conditions where there is no possibility to keep social distance.”
Updated
Spain’s Covid-19 daily death toll has remained under 100 for the sixth consecutive day, according to the latest health ministry figures, which show that 56 deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours, reports Sam Jones, the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent.
To date, the country has recorded 234,824 cases of the disease and 28,628 deaths.
Updated
YouTube has reinstated a video in which a former senior World Health Organization official said he believed the coronavirus pandemic could “burn out” without a vaccine being necessary.
Karol Sikora, a former director of the WHO’s cancer programme, who is now professor of medicine at the University of Buckingham medical school, said in an interview with the UK news website UnHerd that the past two weeks of official statistics suggested that the outbreak was petering out.
The video was subsequently removed from YouTube. But on Thursday, it was allowed back on the platform.
Pleased that Youtube has reinstated my interview. I appreciate all of the support.
— Professor Karol Sikora (@ProfKarolSikora) May 21, 2020
Nobody knows what's going to happen with this pandemic - debate is always a good thing!
I think preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best is a sensible strategy.
Updated
Travellers arriving in the UK from 8 June will have to tell the authorities where they will be staying and face spot checks to ensure they quarantine themselves for 14 days, the home secretary, Priti Patel, has confirmed.
All new arrivals, including UK citizens, will be expected to fill in an online “contact locator form”, including onward travel information. Anyone failing to comply could face a fine of £1,000.
Patel said:
As the world begins to emerge from what we hope is the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, we must look to the future and protect the British public by reducing the risk of cases crossing our border.
We are introducing these new measures now to keep the transmission rate down and prevent a devastating second wave.
Arrivals will be required to travel directly from their port or airport of arrival, preferably by car, to an address where they must then self-isolate for a fortnight.
The details they provide the authorities will allow them to be traced, if someone they travelled with subsequently contracts the disease, and public health authorities will be also be able to check up to ensure the quarantine rules are being obeyed.
Updated
A study of nearly 100,000 coronavirus patients has shown no benefit in treating them with anti-viral drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.
According to the study, which was published on Friday in the Lancet, the drugs actually increased the likelihood of patients with Covid-19 dying in hospital.
Hydroxychloroquine is normally used to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and other conditions, but pronouncements from public figures including Donald Trump, who announced this week he is taking the drug, has prompted governments to bulk buy the medicine.
Chloroquine is an anti-malarial. Both drugs can produce potentially serious side-effects, particularly heart arrhythmia.
“Treatment with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine does not benefit patients with Covid-19,” said Prof Mandeep Mehra, lead author of the study and executive director of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Advanced Heart Disease in Boston.
“Instead, our findings suggest it may be associated with an increased risk of serious heart problems and increased risk of death.”
The authors estimated that the drugs put patients at up to 45% higher risk of dying from Covid-19 compared with underlying health issues.
Updated
80 million infants may have missed out on routine vaccines
About 80 million infants may have missed out on vaccines for diseases including diphtheria, measles and polio as a result of the disruption to healthcare services caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization has said.
According to data collected by WHO and its partners, the provision of routine immunisations for under-ones has been hindered in at least 68 countries, causing disruption to vaccine programmes not seen since their inception in the 1970s.
More than half of the 129 countries where data was available reported moderate-to-severe disruptions, or a total suspension of vaccination services during March-April 2020, WHO said in a press release on Friday.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, said:
Immunisation is one of the most powerful and fundamental disease prevention tools in the history of public health. Disruption to immunisation programmes from the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to unwind decades of progress against vaccine-preventable diseases like measles.
The WHO’s warning comes before a global vaccine summit due to be hosted on 4 June in London, where international donors will be asked to pledge support to the vaccine alliance Gavi, a public-private partnership that aims to increase roll out of vaccines in poorer countries. Tedros added:
From the bottom of my heart, I urge donors to fully fund the alliance. These countries, these children especially, need vaccines, and they need Gavi.
In April, WHO and its partners recommended a temporary halt to polio vaccine campaigns despite recognising that the move would lead to a resurgence of the highly infectious, water-borne disease.
More than a dozen countries in Africa have reported polio outbreaks this year, all caused by a rare mutation in the virus contained in the vaccine.
Updated
France will hold the postponed second round of municipal elections next month if the coronavirus crisis remains under control, the prime minister, Édouard Philippe, has said, writes Kim Willsher, the Guardian’s Paris correspondent.
A commission will look at the rules for postal and proxy voting so a maximum number of the electorate can take part in the vote on 28 June, Philippe added.
The first round of France’s municipal election was held on 15 March, two days before the country went into strict lockdown. The second round was to be held the following Sunday, but was cancelled.
A second round vote will only be held just under 5,000 communes – with a total of 16 million voters – out of more than 30,643 places where the mayor was not elected outright in the first round. Many of the 5,000 second votes are in major towns and cities including Paris.
Philippe said if there was a second wave of Covid-19 cases, the election would be put back until the beginning of next year.
The interior minister, Christophe Castaner, announced that voters would be required to wear face masks. “The election must not be a factor in spreading the virus,” he said. He added that candidates would be expected to campaign differently, giving priority to online and television canvassing as opposed to public meetings, currently banned.
Updated
Sweden reported 54 more deaths from Covid-19 on Friday, taking the total death toll in the country to 3,925.
According to the latest figures from Sweden’s public health agency, 637 more people have tested positive for the coronavirus. In total, Sweden has 32,809 confirmed cases, with 4,971 recoveries.
As regular readers of the blog will now, we have been following the situation in Sweden with some interest, after its government chose not to implement the kinds of compulsory lockdown measures imposed elsewhere in the world.
Today, the Guardian’s comment section has published an op-ed by Tae Hoon Kim, a South Korean geopolitical and economic analyst based in Stockholm, on why he believes that, despite it having a much higher death rate than its neighbours, Sweden is unlikely to make a U-turn on its strategy. He writes:
Sweden has received considerable media scrutiny in recent days. According to figures published on Tuesday, it now has the highest coronavirus-per-capita death rate in the world, with an average of 6.08 deaths per million inhabitants a day on a rolling seven-day average between 13 and 20 May. As of 22 May, Sweden has had 32,172 confirmed cases and 3,871 deaths. These figures are lower than those of Italy or the UK. But they are higher than those of Portugal and Greece, two countries with a similar size of population to Sweden. The figures are also much higher than Sweden’s Nordic neighbours, with Denmark at 11,182 cases and 561 deaths, Norway at 8,309 and 235, and Finland at 6,537 and 306 ...
But despite the high number of deaths, about 70% of Swedes support their government’s approach. In fact, there has not been much public debate or organised opposition to the strategy. The deaths have indeed shocked many Swedes, especially the disproportionately high number of deaths among those over 70 in care homes and those from working-class, immigrant backgrounds. The debates, however, seem to be taking a more socioeconomic angle. In other words, the reasons for these deaths are being blamed on structural, economic, and social deficiencies – but not on the strategy itself.
Updated
Africa reaches 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus
More than 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus have now been reported across Africa, according to figures collated by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
According to the interactive coronavirus dashboard hosted on the African Union health agency’s website, there have so far been 3,101 deaths across the continent from Covid-19, while 39,416 people have recovered.
Unlike other regions, particularly Europe to the north, the coronavirus has been slow to spread across Africa. After the first confirmed case was reported in mid-February in Egypt, many countries responded with strict lockdowns.
The figures show the burden of the pandemic is mainly being felt in north Africa, followed by the western then southern nations. East and central Africa have far fewer cases.
Updated
As Canada’s most populous province moves forward with its reopening plans, concerns are growing that coronavirus cases in Ontario are not yet under control, writes Leyland Cecco in Toronto.
For a brief period in May, new cases showed a steady decrease, leading to optimism that an easing of the province’s lockdown was on the horizon – and justified.
In response, Ontario has given the green light to having given the green light to retailers, golf courses and pet groomers to resume operations. Lawmakers in the governing Progressive Conservative party have also pushed for restaurant and bar patios to reopen, with modifications.
But in recent days, the province’s infection numbers have trended upwards, averaging more than 400 new cases per day this week – a figure the province’s chief medial officer called “disappointing”.
The province had also aimed for 20,000 tests per day. But this past week, an average of less than 10,000 were conducted daily – including only 5,813 on Monday.
“I will be like an 800-pound gorilla on their backs every single day if I have to until I see these numbers go up,” said the Ontario premier, Doug Ford.
At the same time, there is growing concern among health experts that the province is unable to account for the source of nearly two-thirds of infections, leading to concern that the reopening of the province is premature.
Ontario’s ministry of health said determining the source of infection was “ongoing work”, citing incomplete information from local health authorities.
“As we try to get our economy back on its feet, we are very, very likely to experience surges in disease,” Dr David Fisman, an infectious diseases expert, told CBC News. “Covid’s proven itself to be a very slippery foe and you can’t fight an enemy that you can’t see.”
There are 24,187 comfirmed coronavirus cases in the province and almost 2,000 deaths.
Updated
The British prime minister, Boris Johnson, may meet Donald Trump face to face at the G7 summit in the US next month, after Downing Street said it was still exploring the arrangements for the event.
The meeting of global leaders is scheduled for 10 June, with Trump saying he would like it to be held at Camp David, the rural estate of US presidents. He tweeted that hosting it face to face would be a signal to the world of “normalisation” amid the coronavirus pandemic and that other countries involved in the summit were starting to make their own “comeback”.
Johnson’s spokesperson said: “We are in close contact with the White House about the summit and we will look at the details of what they are proposing.”
A physical summit was cancelled in March with the intention of it being transferred to video conferencing. The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said he would consider the summit proposals but discussions were ongoing. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he was open to attending.
Updated
It might have lost 90% of its hotel bookings but Amsterdam shouldn’t rush to welcome back international tourists, according to its mayor. Femke Halsema has sparked anger in the hotel industry by warning the city should be “extremely cautious” about restarting tourism, saying there is not enough space for its 800,000 inhabitants, plus the normal 9 million overnight visitors, and for physical distancing to be respected.
“I hear you talking about international tourism, and I know that there are 55,000 hotel beds waiting for guests, too,” she told a digital council meeting on Tuesday. “But in the coming time we need to be extremely cautious about stimulating regional, national and international traffic. If we do this excessively, we run the risk that Amsterdam becomes the fireplace for a second wave.”
Updated
Few residents of the world’s great metropolises would have thought much about plagues before this year. Outside China and east Asia – made vigilant by swine flu and Sars – the trauma of the 1918 flu pandemic or typhoid epidemics has largely faded from popular memory. But our cities remember.
An outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793 prompted administrators to take over the task of cleaning streets, clearing gutters and collecting rubbish. It worked, and governments across the US adopted the responsibility over the next decades. A misconception that the odour emanating from wastewater was responsible for diseases such as cholera prompted one of the world’s first modern underground sewer systems in London, and the development of wider, straighter and paved roads – which helped prevent water from stagnating.
The legacy Covid-19 may leave on the world’s great cities is being hotly debated, although most specialists admit it is too early to know for sure.
“It will depend in the end on how we analyse this virus: how is it spreading? How is it making people sick?” says Roger Keil, a professor of environmental studies at Toronto’s York University. “We don’t know the full answers, but once they become clearer, urban planners and other professionals will start to think as their predecessors did 100 years ago, as they laid sewer pipes and cleaned out parts of the city that were considered insalubrious.”
Updated
Madrid and Barcelona to ease lockdown on Monday
The Madrid region and the Barcelona metropolitan area will be able to move into the next phase of lockdown de-escalation from Monday, the Spanish government has announced.
The two regions have been the areas hardest hit by Covid-19, which has so far killed 27,940 people in the country and infected 233,037.
The loosening of the restrictions in both areas – and in parts of Castilla y León – means that all of Spain is now in at least the second phase of the lockdown exit plan.
From Monday, people in the three areas will be able to meet in groups of up to 10 individuals, and restaurant and cafe terraces will reopen at 50% capacity. Places of worship will also be able to operate at 30% capacity.
The health minister, Salvador Illa, said 47% of the country will move to the third and penultimate stage of the de-escalation on Monday. People in the Balearic Islands, the Canaries, and some parts of the mainland will then be able to visit shopping centres and eat inside restaurants – both of which will operate at 40% capacity.
The government’s latest two-week extension of the state of emergency originally declared on 14 March was hard-won, and protests against the lockdown have spread from Madrid to other regions. The far-right Vox party has called on people to take to their cars to demonstrate across Spain on Saturday.
María Jesús Montero, the finance minister who serves as the government’s spokeswoman, said that people had a right to protest, as long as their demonstrations did not risk spreading the coronavirus:
The only things that the state of emergency limits its people’s freedom of movement and reunion. Very often, some of the shouts you hear during these demonstrations are contradictory because people are out protesting. Some people shout, ‘Freedom!’, when they’re actually exercising the right to criticise things and protest. But you can’t mix up freedom with the freedom to infect people.
Updated
Summary
Here are the headlines in our coronavirus coverage so far today:
- Fighting has forced 660,000 people to flee their homes since the UN secretary general called for a global ceasefire to focus on handling the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
- Tax revenues in Germany fell by a quarter last month, compared with a year earlier, as Europe’s largest economy faced its most severe recession since the second world war. The central government and the 16 federal states pulled in about €39bn in April, 25.3% less than the same month in 2019.
- A senior official in South Africa told MPs that it is time to reopen the country’s economy. Lionel October, director-general of the department of trade, said the government was finalising consultations on how to reopen industries.
- Pictures have emerged of Donald Trump wearing a face mask during a visit in Michigan. The US president had previously been called a “petulant child” by a state attorney general for allegedly refusing to wear the covering during a tour of a Ford plant.
- India has reported 6,000 new cases in its biggest one-day rise since the outbreak started. The country has also reported over 118,000 confirmed cases – around a 5% increase from yesterday.
- Coronavirus cases in war-torn Yemen are believed to be “widespread”, while its health system has “in effect collapsed”. A UN spokesman said on Friday that the reported total of 184 cases in the country is also “almost certainly much higher”.
- Indonesia has reported 973 new infections – its highest daily figure – bringing the country’s total cases to 20,162. The figures come as millions of people in the world’s fourth most populous country mark the festival of Eid al-Fitr without the usual celebrations.
- The leader of New Zealand’s main opposition party has been ousted after opinion polls showed Jacinda Ardern’s soaring popularity. Around 84% of New Zealanders approve of the prime minister’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, which has helped to boost her ratings ahead of a general election in September.
Updated
Exit festival given new date in August
Good news for ravers, many of whom have been wondering if they’ll ever get to throw shapes and hug strangers ever again. One of Europe’s biggest music events, Exit festival in Serbia, has been given a new date in August, Agence France-Presse reports.
Originally scheduled for mid-July in the northern city of Novi Sad, the fate of the festival had been uncertain since the coronavirus pandemic spread. But after Serbia emerged from its lockdown without a major outbreak, the prime minister, Ana Brnabić, recommended the event could take place after all.
“We expect the (health) situation to be completely calm by August,” she said Thursday.
Organisers of the festival, which drew 200,000 people last year, welcomed the “excellent news” and said there could be changes to the format of the event, whose exact dates are still not confirmed.
“If necessary, we are ready to substantially reduce the number of visitors and limit ourselves to the local and regional public,” they said in a statement.
Exit, now in its 20th year, was born out of the student movement that opposed the former leader Slobodan Milošević, who was overthrown in 2000 by mass protests.
This year, headliners were expected to include David Guetta, Tyga and Fatboy Slim.
Updated
The UK has reported 351 more deaths from Covid-19, taking the total number of deaths in Europe’s worst-affected country to 36,393.
According to the health department, out of 80,297 people tested on 21 May, 3,287 were diagnosed with the coronavirus. So far the UK has recorded 254,195 confirmed cases.
As of 9am 22 May, there have been 3,231,921 tests, with 140,497 tests on 21 May.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) May 22, 2020
2,144,626 people have been tested of which 254,195 tested positive.
As of 5pm on 21 May, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 36,393 have sadly died. pic.twitter.com/tOO6oMwtK7
Read more about the coronavirus situation in the UK on our dedicated live blog.
Updated
A little over a month ago, health experts were saying Japan risked becoming one of the world’s coronavirus “disaster zones”, writes Justin McCurry, the Guardian’s Tokyo correspondent.
Its government was already facing criticism over its decision to quarantine passengers and crew onboard the Diamond Princess cruise liner, and had been accused of underplaying the Covid-19 threat while it clung to the increasingly faint hope of hosting the Olympics this summer.
Japan was testing too few people, critics said, opting instead to focus on clusters of cases rather than overburden its healthcare system with patients displaying no or only mild symptoms who, by law, had to be admitted to hospital. One of the world’s richest countries was bungling its response, critics said.
But today, Japan can make a strong case for being another coronavirus success story, albeit one that has failed to resonate globally in the same way as those in South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Updated
Fifty-two more people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Kenya, out of a total of 2,567 samples analysed over the past 24 hours, the country’s health ministry has said.
Kenya has so far reported 1,161 confirmed cases of coronavirus, of which 50 patients have died and 380 have recovered.
In the last 24 hours, we have tested 2,567 samples out of which 52 people have tested positive for Coronavirus disease.#StayHomeHero #KomeshaCorona
— Ministry of Health (@MOH_Kenya) May 22, 2020
We have today discharged another (5) patients who have recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of those who have recovered to 380. Our case fatality still remains at 50.#KomeshaCorona update. pic.twitter.com/taTzSB6JVZ
— Ministry of Health (@MOH_Kenya) May 22, 2020
Updated
Saudi Arabia has reported 2,642 new cases of coronavirus, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the kingdom to 67,719.
However, in the same update the country reported that even more people had recovered from their infections, with 2,963 more given the all clear taking its total number of recoveries to 39,003.
So far 364 Saudis have died from Covid-19.
#الصحة تعلن عن تسجيل (2642) حالة إصابة جديدة بفيروس #كورونا الجديد (كوفيد19)، وتسجيل (13) حالات وفيات رحمهم الله، وتسجيل (2963) حالة تعافي ليصبح إجمالي عدد الحالات المتعافية (39,003) حالة ولله الحمد. pic.twitter.com/oElbyhSNxi
— و ز ا ر ة ا لـ صـ حـ ة السعودية (@SaudiMOH) May 22, 2020
Updated
White flags first began to appear on the streets of Guatemala City in early April, writes Jeff Abbott from the Guatemalan capital.
Since then, flags have become common across the country, with an entire lexicon of need reflected in their colours: white means hunger; red means medicine is needed; black, yellow, or blue means that a woman, child or elderly person is in danger of violence.
Guatemala has reported 45 coronavirus deaths and 2,265 infections. But the economic fallout of the pandemic has affected millions.
Measures imposed by the government of President Alejandro Giammattei to slow the spread of the virus – including suspension of public transportation and daily curfews – have hit those living in poverty the hardest.
“It is another sign of a society that lacks social services and that does not have a labour market that permits people to have savings to confront the crisis,” said Jonathan Menkos, the executive director of the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies.
“[The white flags] are the most clear evidence that the social and economic model leaves most people behind. They cannot go one month without resources to eat.”
Updated
A senior official in the South African government has told MPs that it is time to reopen the country’s economy, in spite of dire predictions of the potential scale of the coronavirus outbreak.
Lionel October, the director-general of the department of trade, told a parliamentary committee that the government was finalising consultations on how to reopen industries and get the country back to work, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported.
Xinhua quoted October as saying that a large part of the economy was expected to reopen next month, as South Africa moves to level three of the lockdown, which was first imposed on 27 March and was eased slightly at the beginning of May.
His comments came despite dire warnings by statisticians hired by the government that in a worst case scenario 50,000 South Africans could die from Covid-19.
Updated
Unions in Italy have accused a US multinational of breaking the law after it sacked 190 workers in Naples during the coronavirus crisis, writes Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo.
On Friday, unions and workers protested against the decision of Jabil, a company which spans numerous industries, including healthcare, life sciences, clean technology and has 100 plants in 28 countries, and 170,000 employees worldwide.
Media in Italy reported that the company has announced that, from Monday, 190 workers at a plant in Marcianise would be laid off because of “falling production volumes and under-utilised resources”.
“Leaving all those workers in the middle of the street during a pandemic is an intolerable and illegal decision,” Rocco Palombella of the Uil union told the Italian newspaper la Repubblica. “It is an irresponsible attitude from the American company.”
Michele Madonna of the Fiom union said: “Companies do not stop even in the face of the pandemic drama. We are desperate.”
Italian unions allege that Jabil breached a government-imposed decree to deal that prohibits the layoffs until mid-August. The aim of the decree is to prevent the household finances of Italian families worsening during the coronavirus emergency.
However, in a note reported by Corriere della Sera and Repubblica, Jabil said the decree had been respected because the layoffs in Marcianise were already planned in June 2019, more than eight months before 23 February cut-off point for layoff procedures to be suspended under the new law.
The company also said it had done everything possible to help its workers and that it had “also made available significant economic resources both for employees, as incentives to leave, and for the companies that will hire Jabil’s employees, in support of their business plans”.
Updated
An editor has been jailed for two years in Myanmar after his news agency reported a coronavirus death that turned out to be incorrect, Agence France-Presse reports.
Zaw Ye Htet, the chief editor of the Dae Pyaw news agency, was arrested on 13 April, the day he published an article that wrongly reported there had been a death due to the Covid-19 in eastern Karen state.
He stood trial on 20 May. On Friday, his lawyer, Myint Thuzar Maw, told AFP: “He was sentenced under section 505(b) to two years in jail.”
Section 505(b) is a vaguely worded law, and often used against journalists and activists for making any statement that cause fear or alarm.
“We’ll appeal this unfair decision,” Zaw Ye Htet’s wife, Phyu Phyu Win, told AFP by phone.
Myanmar has only 199 confirmed cases of coronavirus and six deaths, although the low numbers tested mean experts say the true figures are far higher.
Updated
Children and young people could be half as likely to catch coronavirus than adults, a review of studies from around the world has suggested, PA Media reports.
Researchers found the under-20s appeared to be 56% less likely of catching the virus. But the review of global test and tracing and population screening studies led University College London said evidence remained “weak” on how likely children were to transmit the virus to others.
Researchers also concluded they did not have sufficient data to examine whether children under 12 differed to teenagers in terms of susceptibility to the virus.
The research’s lead author, Prof Russell Viner of the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said it was the “first comprehensive study” to review what was and was not known about “susceptibility and transmission” among children.
He said:
Our findings show children and young people appear 56% less likely to contract Covid-19 from infected others.
Susceptibility is a key part of the chain of infection, and this supports the view that children are likely to play a smaller role in transmitting the virus and proliferating the pandemic, although considerable uncertainty remains.
This new data provides essential evidence to governments around the world to inform their decision-making on whether to reopen schools and reduce or end lockdown measures.
Updated
Tanzania has defeated the coronavirus through the power of prayer, its president has said.
John Magafuli made the claim after his country after his country’s number of confirmed cases stayed the same for three weeks. Just over 500 cases have been reported in a country of nearly 60 million people.
Meanwhile, Magafuli has led a crackdown on anyone who dares raise concerns about the virus’s spread in Tanzania, or the government’s response to it, the Associated Press reports. Critics have been arrested, and opposition politicians and rights activists say their phones are being tapped.
However, on just one day this month, 50 Tanzanian truck drivers tested positive for the coronavirus after crossing into neighbouring Kenya.
Updated
As many as 50,000 people in South Africa could die from Covid-19 by the end of the year, with up to 3 million infected, according to a worst-case scenario suggested by scientists and statisticians working for the health ministry.
Despite a national lockdown slowing the spread of the virus, South Africa has already has the highest number of infections on the continent, with more than 18,000 identified cases and 339 deaths.
Taking into account the southern hemisphere winter, the modelling by scientists suggests there could be between 35,000 and 50,000 Covid-19 deaths by November.
“We haven’t really crushed the curve,” said one of the experts, Harry Moultrie, during a presentation shown on television, according to a Reuters report. “We also have some significant concerns that because of the focus on Covid-19, this may compromise other areas like HIV and TB.”
The models, which consider best and worst scenarios, suggest as many as 3 million coronavirus cases by November and demand for hospital beds peaking at 45,000, about 10 times the country’s intensive care bed availability.
Updated
660,000 forced to flee homes since UN's call for Covid-19 ceasefire
Fighting has forced 660,000 people to flee their homes since the UN secretary general called for a global ceasefire to focus on handling the coronavirus pandemic, an NGO says.
On Thursday, Antonio Guterres reiterated his call for an end to fighting, which he first issued on 23 March. But the Norwegian Refugee Council said that the UN’s security council had failed to provide leadership for ceasefires, peace talks or protection of civilians during the pandemic.
Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the NRC, said:
While people are being displaced and killed, powerful members of the UN security council squabble like children in a sandbox.
World leaders must rise to the occasion and jointly push parties to cease their fire and unite in protecting all communities from Covid-19. Now is not the time for kindergarten politics.
According to NRC, the worst affected country was the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 480,000 people have been forced to escape fighting between armed groups and the country’s army.
NRC also pointed to Yemen, where despite the Saudi-led coalition announcing it would implement a unilateral ceasefire, airstrikes have continued. Those attacks and other armed operations have resulted in the displacement of 24,000 people.
Updated
Fifty more people have died from Covid-19 in Pakistan, the government reports, its third highest official daily death toll since the pandemic began. This brings the total number of coronavirus deaths in the country to 1,067.
According to the latest update, out of 16,387 tests carried out in the past 24 hours, 2,603 people tested positive, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 47,429. So far, 15,201 people have recovered.
Sindh is the country’s worst affected province, with 19,924 cases, followed by Punjab, with 18,455.
Updated
The coronavirus is tearing through Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander communities in California, fanning longstanding health disparities and killing community members at a higher rate than any other racial group in the state, Mario Koran reports for the Guardian US from Oakland.
Data from California’s department of public health reveals that Pacific Islanders have contracted coronavirus at nearly twice the state’s overall rate. As of 17 May, they have died from the virus at a rate 2.6 times higher than the state average – the highest death rate of any racial or ethnic group.
The pattern extends beyond California. Oregon, Utah, Washington and Arkansas – where many Marshallese work in meatpacking plants – have all seen similar trends.
Public health experts have often said the group’s relatively small size can skew the numbers, making percentages appear outsized. But to community members and advocates, that argument obfuscates a long history of overlooked needs and health disparities.
Updated
Fifty-one people in Iran died from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, as 2,311 more tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the health ministry.
In his daily update, Kianoush Jahanpour, the health ministry’s spokesman, said the total number of confirmed cases across the Islamic republic, scene of one of the earliest outbreaks outside China, had now reached 131,652, of whom 102,276 patients had subsequently been given the all-clear.
The death toll now stands at 7,300 and 2,659 remain in a critical condition in hospital, Jahanpour said, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.
Iranian health authorities have so far carried out 763,913 tests for the virus.
It would be hard to overstate the importance of developing a vaccine to Sars-CoV-2 – it’s seen as the fast track to a return to normal life, writes Ian Sample, the Guardian’s science editor. That’s why the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said the UK was “throwing everything at it”.
But while trials have been launched and manufacturing deals already signed – Oxford University is now recruiting 10,000 volunteers for the next phase of its research – ministers and their advisers have become noticeably more cautious in recent days.
This is why.
Africa is approaching 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization’s regional office for the continent.
In its daily update on Twitter, the WHO African region office reported that there were over 99,400 cases across the continent, about 4,500 more than on Thursday.
The discrepancy over the number of recoveries - where the WHO reported 1,000 fewer recoveries on Thursday than on Wednesday - seems to have been cleared up. It is now saying that about 39,000 people infected with the virus have now been given the all clear.
Just over 3,000 people in Africa have died.
Over 99,400 confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent - with more than 39,000 recoveries & 3,078 deaths. View country figures & more with the WHO African Region COVID-19 Dashboard: https://t.co/V0fkK8dYTg pic.twitter.com/46DZhvIegy
— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) May 22, 2020
Germany's tax revenues fall by a quarter in April
Tax revenues in Germany fell by a quarter last month, compared with a year earlier, as Europe’s largest economy faced its most severe recession since the second world war.
According to the finance ministry’s monthly report, published on Friday, the central government and the 16 federal states pulled in about 39bn euros in April, 25.3% less than the same month in 2019, Reuters reported.
The revenue decline was most severe for income, corporate and air traffic taxes, the report showed. The pandemic’s impact on tax revenues were first visible in March but has now accelerated.
Germany authorities imposed a strict lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, closing most businesses and limiting people’s movement outside their homes.
The finance minister, Olaf Scholz, said earlier this month that the plunge in tax revenues will not stop the government from presenting a stimulus package next month to help companies recover from the coronavirus crisis.
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus increased by 460 to 177,212, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Friday.
The reported death toll rose by 27 to 8174, the tally showed.
Hi, this is Damien Gayle taking over the blog now, bringing you the latest in coronavirus-related news from around the world.
If you have any comments, or tips or suggestions for coverage please drop me a line, either via email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.
Summary
Summary
Here’s an outline of some of the key global coronavirus updates so far this morning.
- Pictures have emerged of Donald Trump wearing a face mask during a visit in Michigan. The US president had previously been called a “petulant child” by a state attorney general for allegedly refusing to wear the covering during a tour of the Ford plant.
- India has reported 6,000 new cases in its biggest one-day rise since the outbreak started. The country has also reported over 118,000 confirmed cases – around a 5% increase from yesterday.
- Coronavirus cases in war-torn Yemen are believed to be “widespread”, while its health system has “in effect collapsed”. A UN spokesman said on Friday that the reported total of 184 cases in the country is also “almost certainly much higher”.
- Hong Kong activists have called for citizens to rise up against Bejing’s plans to impose national security legislation in the financial hub. Many believe the plans have reignited the anti-government movement that had lost its focus and dwindled amid the coronavirus pandemic.
- Indonesia has reported 973 new infections – its highest number of daily coronavirus cases – bringing the country’s total cases to 20,162. The figures come as millions of people in the world’s fourth most populous country mark the festival of Eid al-Fitr without the usual celebrations.
- The leader of New Zealand’s main opposition party has been ousted after opinion polls showed Jacinda Ardern’s soaring popularity. Around 84% of New Zealanders approve of the prime minister’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, which has helped to boost her ratings ahead of a general election in September.
The transmission of coronavirus is believed to be “already widespread” in Yemen, the UN has said.
Aid agencies have said the country is “really on the brink right now” and that its health system “has in effect collapsed” according to a spokesman.
During a Geneva briefing, Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said: “They are talking about having to turn people away because they do not have enough (medical) oxygen, they do not have enough personal protective equipment.”
“The actual incidence is almost certainly much higher,” Laerke said.
Authorities in Yemen have reported just 184 cases including 30 deaths from the virus to the World Health Organisation.
The UN has estimated that it will need to seek $2bn to maintain aid programmes in the country until the end of the year.
Updated
Amazon is to hire 50,000 temporary workers in India to meet a surge in online shopping in the country amid a national coronavirus lockdown.
Although online outlets faced a massive disruption to operations in the first days of lockdown, an easing of restrictions has allowed many to resume business as usual.
“We want to continue helping customers all over India get everything they need so they can continue to practice social distancing,” Amazon senior executive Akhil Saxena said in a statement on the company’s blog.
“[The move] will also keep as many people as possible working during this pandemic while providing a safe work environment for them.”
Amazon said the temporary workers will be recruited to its “fulfillment centres” and as part of its delivery network.
The announcement comes at a time when many companies in India have cut jobs as they try to tide over the financial impact of the health crisis.
The Afghan health minister asked the waring sides to don’t shelter inside medical centres as number of confirmed coronavirus cases has passed 9,000 and Kabul recorded its third worst day of the crisis straight.
Ferozuddin Feroz, the country’s health minister has asked the militant groups, Afghan government and international forces to don’t use medical centres as shelter.
“Our medical centres are servicing all sides, so I ask to don’t use medical centres as shelter” Feroz said on Friday.
War has been intensified across the country as the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, in response to an attack on a maternity hospital last week, ordered a resumption of a full offensive against the Taliban and other militant groups, ending a period of reduced military activity ahead of US-brokered peace talks that had been expected to start this year.
Feroz also ask the nation to avoid Eid gatherings. He warned that if people continue to break lockdown rules, the number of transmission will continue to surge across the country as despite governmen authorised lockdown in several provinces, streets are still crowded.
On Thursday the ministry said it has run out of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients. “The hospitals which had empty beds until 10 days ago and we were sending patients to, are paked, with no more beds. We should launch more hospital immediately” Wahid Majroh, deputy health minister said.
Meanwhile, number of confirmed cases has passed 9,000 as more than half of tests done in a 24-hour period come back positive across the country and Kabul recorded its third worst day of the crisis straight.
Health ministry tested 1,060 suspected patients of which 542 came back positive in last 24 hours, 12 deaths of Covid-19 have also been recorded, pushing the total number of infections to 9,216 and death toll to 205.
There have so far been 993 recoveries. Capital Kabul recorded 316 new cases out of 609 tests, four patients also died of Covid-19 in Kabul in last 24 hours.
Total number of confirmed cases in Afghanistan’s worst affected area stands at 3,083 with 29 deaths. Concerns are high in Afghanistan as Eid Al-Fitr is scheduled for end of this.
“Do stay at home during Eid and don’t make the happiness of Eid to grief” Majroh told the nation Thursday. “If you have doubt about the virus, just go and stay an hour in front a coronavirus hospital and look at the number of patients entering the hospital and deads bodies coming out of that”
In case you missed this earlier, here’s a video of Donald Trump telling reporters at a Michigan Ford plant on Thursday that he had worn a mask during part of a tour.
The US president’s decision to appear without a protective mask during part of the visit drew the ire of the state attorney general, Dana Nessel, who told CNN: “The president is like a petulant child”. Nessel had previously written to the White House to insist it is the “law that everyone in the state” should wear a mask.
A photograph posted by NBC to social media appears to show the president wearing a face covering during his tour of the plant in Ypsilanti, which has been producing ventilators and PPE during the coronavirus outbreak, but he was not wearing a mask when he spoke to reporters.
Trump said: “I had one on before. I wore one in the back area. I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it.”
Cases of coronavirus in Singapore have surpassed 30,000 as the city-state continues to report hundreds of new infections in cramped migrant worker dormitories.
On Friday, the lowly-paid workers represented the vast majority of the 612 new cases. Total cases in Singapore, which has one of the highest daily infection rates in Asia, now stand at 30,426.
Trump pictured wearing face mask
Pictures of Donald Trump wearing a face mask while on a visit in Michigan have emerged.
In a photo since published by both Sky News and NBC, the US president can be seen wearing a navy blue mask.
The images emerged after Trump was called a “petulant child” by a state attorney general for allegedly refusing to wear the covering during a tour of a plant belonging to the Ford car company.
President Trump wears a mask during his tour of the Ford Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where ventilators, masks and other medical supplies are being manufactured. https://t.co/UCqBVUEuBZ
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 22, 2020
📷 Anonymous pic.twitter.com/eiIFVNPVIh
Surrounded by Ford executives who were wearing masks, Trump told reporters he had put one on earlier in the visit.
“I had one on before. I wore one in the back area. I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,” he said.
Updated
Russia has reported a record daily rise in coronavirus fatalities of 150 in the past 24 hours, taking the country’s nationwide death toll to 3,249.
The country’s coronavirus response centre also reported 8,894 new infections, bringing the total number of cases to 326,448.
The leader of New Zealand’s main opposition party has been ousted after opinion polls showed prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s soaring popularity over her handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Simon Bridges was replaced by Todd Muller in an emergency caucus meeting of his centre-right National Party following a week of disastrous poll results.
A general election is set to take place in the country in September.
According to Thursday’s poll, just 5% of New Zealanders supported Bridges, 43, as the country’s leader, while support for his party simultaneously fell to the lowest in decades.
The same poll revealed Ardern, 39, had the support of 63% of the electorate.
Her popularity has risen substantially in recent weeks, with around 84% of people in New Zealand approving of the government’s handling of the crisis.
More on China’s plans to impose national security legislation in Hong Kong. The chief executive of the global financial hub, Carrie Lam, has said the legislation would not affect its judicial independence or that of its legal entities.
Reuters has reported that Lam said Beijing’s intention was to tackle illegal activities that the government believed had damaged national security.
The Hong Kong correspondent for the AFP news agency has posted a statement from Lam on Twitter.
#JUSTIN #CarrieLam said HK gov will cooperate with Beijing to promulgate the national security law in Hong Kong, and HK gov still has the responsibility to complete local legislation of Article 23 of Basic Law. pic.twitter.com/86vbWNWdSA
— Xinqi Su 蘇昕琪 (@XinqiSu) May 22, 2020
6,000 new cases in India in biggest one-day rise since outbreak started
India has reported 6,000 new cases of the coronavirus, the country’s biggest 24-hour rise since the pandemic began.
Figures on the new infections come as New Delhi eases the nationwide lockdown and some domestic flights resume.
On Friday, India reported over 118,000 confirmed cases – roughly a 5% increase from Thursday. A total of 3,853 people have died after contracting the virus.
Although the current lockdown, which began on March 25, has been extended to May 31 by prime minister Narendra Modi, rules have been relaxed in areas with lower case numbers.
State governments are also allowed to issue their own guidance on some matters.
Updated
Thailand is to maintain its state of emergency over the coronavirus until the end of June.
The country’s Covid-19 taskforce said on Friday that the measure would be kept in place to keep infections under control as the government prepares to ease restrictions further in early June.
Last weekend, shopping malls and department stores reopened after almost two months of closure. But despite the slowing of cases, bars, nightclubs, cinemas, playgrounds and some sports are still off-limits.
“The reason for extending the emergency decree for one more month is health security, enabling a unified and continued operation by officials in a pandemic situation that has not been resolved,” said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government’s Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
The extension is subject to Cabinet approval on Tuesday.
Updated
Australia has almost halved the number of people it will support with its wage subsidy scheme during the pandemic.
The revision, which will save the government around $60bn (Australian dollars), comes as the Treasury said successful efforts to control the outbreak and errors on subsidy applications meant only 3.5 million people will need to be covered.
In May, the government said it would spend $130bn to subsidise the wages of around 6 million people until September as social distancing restrictions forced hundreds of thousands out of work.
The impact on the public purse from the programme will not be as great as initially estimated,” Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a statement.
The revision to the scheme, which is now expected to cost $70bn, comes hours after Fitch Ratings downgraded its outlook on Australia’s coveted ‘AAA’ rating to “negative” from “stable”, citing the hit to the country’s economy and public finances from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hong Kong activists have called for people to rise up against Beijing’s plans to impose national security legislation in the city, saying that the new laws could erode its freedoms through “force and fear”.
A proposed march at noon on Friday in the central financial district did not materialise after the online calls drew the attention of only a handful of activists and as riot police made their presence visible on the streets.
But new calls have emerged for flash mobs at night across the territory, with activists planning to meet the press to announce “street action” later today.
“This is a great moment to reboot the protest,” university student Kay, 24, told Reuters. She participated in last year’s often violent anti-government and anti-Beijing protests which have since entered a lull due to the coronavirus.
I’m Amy Walker. I’ll be steering you through our global coronavirus updates for the next few hours. If you’d like to get in touch, you can contact me on Twitter (@amyrwalker).
Updated
Bulgaria, which has started to ease its lockdown, has scrapped a ban on the entry of visitors from the European Union and Schengen visa zone countries, the health ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.
In mid-March European Union member Bulgaria banned entry to its territory to travellers from many countries in an attempt to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The health ministry said that the lifting of the ban also covers San Marino, Andorra, Monaco and Vatican City. The ministry said that people arriving in Bulgaria would continue to spend 14 days in quarantine.
But the 14-day period will no longer apply to Bulgarian citizens and citizens of other EU countries who are travelling for humanitarian reasons and those who are “representatives of the trade, economic and investment activities”.
The quarantine will also not apply to people directly related to construction, maintenance, operations, and ensuring the safety of the strategic and critical infrastructure of Bulgaria, the ministry said.
Updated
Here’s a brief look at some of the UK newspaper front pages.
The Guardian splashes on No 10’s u-turn on the surcharge on foreign National Health Service workers.
GUARDIAN: @BorisJohnson in U-turn on surcharge for foreign NHS workers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/glhyavQLzp
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 21, 2020
The Times splash is: “Immunity forms planned for coronavirus survivors”.
THE TIMES: immunity forms planned for coronavirus survivors #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/M2Rnw1ysd8
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 21, 2020
And the Telegraph splashes on police spot checks to enforce quarantine.
TELEGRAPH: Police spot checks to enforce quarantine #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/MlkBS3XVFN
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 21, 2020
The Mail asks if the 10 million antibody tests from next week and a swab test with results in 20 minutes could be the “biggest virus hope we’ve had?”
MAIL: could this be biggest virus hope we’ve had? #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/1UUk9gh89j
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 21, 2020
And the FT says China risks reigniting Hong Kong protests by imposing security laws.
FT: China risks reigniting Hong Kong protest by imposing security law #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/7nbEtfKrCD
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 21, 2020
Updated
In case you missed this earlier, China has abandoned a GDP target for first time in decades the amid “great uncertainty” of virus.
Chinese premier Li Keqiang told the opening of the National People’s Congress in Beijing on Friday: “We have not set a specific target for economic growth this year. This is because our country will face some factors that are difficult to predict in its development due to the great uncertainty regarding the Covid-19 pandemic and the world economic and trade environment.”
You can see our full report from Helen Davidson and Lily Kuo below.
Global report: Indonesia cases top daily record as Muslim world prepares for 'saddest' Eid
Our global report today looks at the growing number of cases in the world’s fourth most populous nation, Indonesia.
Rebecca Ratcliffe writes:
Indonesia has reported its highest number of daily coronavirus cases as millions of people in the world’s fourth most populous country prepared to mark the festival of Eid al-Fitr without the usual celebrations and gatherings.
This year’s festivities will be dampened by the economic hardship for many as Indonesian migrant workers, who usually send money back home to their families, have been left stranded and with no income.
Indonesian president Joko Widodo has banned people travelling home to their families for the holiday, though thousands have reportedly made the journey this week, despite fears that this could prompt further rises in transmission.
Officials said the virus has been spreading at its fastest rate over the past nine days, due in part to a worsening outbreak in East Java.
On Thursday, the country reported 973 new infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 20,162. The authorities have asked the military and the police to prevent arrivals in Jakarta until a full reopening of the capital is permitted.
You can see the full story on the link below:
Summary
If you are just joining the blog, here’s a summary of the key events so far:
Global infections have passed 5.1 million, deaths pass 332,000: Global cases stand at 5,102,573, with deaths reported at 332,924, according to the Johns Hopkins university tracker. Deaths in the US, stand at 94,702. The UK’s death toll is 36,124, with 252,246 infections
China has not set a GDP target in due to “great uncertainty”: Beijing has taken the rate step of not setting a GDP target for the first time since it began publishing such goals in 1990. Instead, given “great uncertainty” caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, China will “give priority to stabilising employment and ensuring living standards”, Premier Li Keqiang told the opening of the National People’s Congress. He also said governments at all levels should “tighten their belts”, and that all types of surplus, idle and carryover funds will be withdrawn and re-allocated, to be put to better use. China reported four new cases of Covid-19 on Friday.
Trump didn’t wear mask at factory visit and has pushed for churches to open: The president toured a Ford plant in the battleground state of Michigan, without wearing a face mask in front of TV cameras. The plant had been recast to produce ventilators and personal protective equipment. On Tuesday Ford said its policy was that all visitors must wear face masks. Trump told reporters he had put one on out of the view of cameras: “I had one on before. I wore one in the back area. I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,” he said. Earlier Trump said there would be an announcement “very soon” on reopening churches to the public.
Brazil has passed 20,000 deaths: Latin America’s biggest country passed the grim milestone with a record one-day death toll of 1,188, taking the confirmed total to 20,047. The country has 310,087 infections, third behind the US (1,577,287) and Russia (317,554). President Bolsonaro, a long-running advocate of malaria drug chloroquine to treat Covid-19, said on Thursday he knew there was no proof it works, but said there are cases in which it appears to have been successful.
Russia’s industrial output dropped 6.5% in April: The country’s economic performance was hit by the coronavirus lockdown. The state statistics agency said “consumer demand fell for a range of goods and services”. Russia’s commodities sector only decreased by 3.2% year-on-year, and oil production actually grew by 0.2%. Pharmaceutical industries grew by 13.5%, year-on-year.
Indonesia has had its biggest one day jump in cases: The world’s fourth most populous country reported 973 new infections on Thursday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 20,162. The authorities have asked the military and the police to prevent arrivals in Jakarta.
South Korea has reported 20 new cases: The new coronavirus cases came as health authorities worked to contain the cluster connected to Seoul nightclubs. South Korea has had a total of 11,142 infections and 264 deaths.
Australian’s most populous state eased restrictions further: New South Wales has announced cafes and restaurants will be allowed to have up to 50 patrons from 1 June, up from 10 currently allowed. Australia has had remarkable success in flattening the curve of infections from the coronavirus. The country of 25m has recorded 101 deaths and just over 7,000 cases. The country is consistently recording fewer than 20 new cases a day.
Tributes have flowed for the former White House butler who died from Covid-19: Wilson Jerman, who has died from Covid-19, aged 91, was a fixture in the White House under 11 presidents. Jerman started working as a cleaner under Dwight Eisenhower and retired as an elevator operator during the presidency of Barack Obama. Michelle Obama said: “With his kindness and care, Wilson Jerman helped make the White House a home for decades of first families, including ours.”
Updated
South Korea reports 20 new cases
South Korea reported has 20 more cases of the new coronavirus, as health authorities work to contain the cluster connected to Seoul nightclubs. South Korea has had a total of 11,142 infections and 264 deaths.
Updated
The war of words between China and the US has continued, with Chinese State media telling US senators who are pushing for sanctions in response to Beijing’s new national security laws for Hong Kong. The Global Times says the Chinese public is “outraged” by the senator’s calls, and will continue to “defend its sovereignty as HK has always been part of China”.
It’s hard to escape the escalating rhetoric between these two world superpowers on several fronts.
#US senators who are pushing for new sanctions in responding to #HK new national security law have outraged the Chinese public who vow to defend sovereignty as HK has been always part of China, and object to all forms of foreign intervention https://t.co/sOXdDu36Wz pic.twitter.com/Ig3RfKNuRB
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) May 22, 2020
While the Hong Kong story dominates China coverage, the country reported four newly diagnosed cases of Covid-19 on Friday, including two imported cases (both in Sichuan) and two local cases (both in Jilin).
Updated
Australian state of New South Wales announces easing of restrictions
The leader of Australia’s most populous state has announced that restrictions imposed to slow the spread of coronavirus will be eased to allow cafes and restaurants to have up to 50 patrons from 1 June.
The premier of the state of New South Wales (NSW), Gladys Berejiklian, said the easing of restrictions, which currently limit restaurants and cafes to 10 patrons, was needed to revive the local economy.
“Losing 221,000 jobs in April was a disaster. We don’t want to see that continue,” Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.
Australia’s hospitality industry has been one of the hardest hit by social distancing restrictions imposed in March to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Nationally, nearly 600,000 people were in April forced out of work by the restrictions.
Berejiklian said that restrictions would still be in place, including limits of 10 people for single bookings, enforced social distancing between tables, no mingling of patrons, and customers at pubs required to sit at tables.
Australia has had remarkable success in flattening the curve of infections from the coronavirus. The country of 25m has recorded 101 deaths and just over 7,000 cases. The country is consistently recording fewer than 20 new cases a day.
Updated
We need geeks, not James Bonds, for post-Covid world, says French spy chief
Among those imagining a new world post-coronavirus is the technical director of the French secret service, who has said the DGSE wants to recruit geeks rather than budding young James Bonds.
In rare public comments, Patrick Pailloux said there was a danger that many young tech-savvy French people did not consider themselves suitable for the stereotypes of France’s directorate-general for external security (DGSE), but that needed to change as France adapts to new demands in the post-coronavirus world.
“We need people who are very connected to new technologies – thus young people,” Pailloux told Agence France-Presse. “We have to bring them into the DGSE, it’s essential.”
Washington DC mayor sets tentative date for easing some restrictions
After weeks of insisting the Washington DC area is not ready to end restrictions, the mayor, Muriel Bowser, has said the numbers are pointing to the start of a gradual reopening process at the end of the month.
Bowser has set Friday, 29 May, as a potential start date for phase 1 of the District of Columbia’s proposed three-phase reopening plan. That includes restaurants allowing outdoor seating, non-essential businesses offering curb-side pickup and hair salons and barbers operating by appointment at limited capacity.
Bowser emphasised the gradual nature of the process and warned residents not to expect the lives they had in February to return in full any time soon.
“Let’s be clear on what this is and what this isn’t,” Bowser said. “This is not an on-off switch.”
Bowser had previously set the nations capital on a timeline that would have it beginning to reopen on June 8 at the earliest. That’s later than most jurisdictions around the country and a stark contrast to the sense of urgency to reopen coming from the White House.
China empowers itself to set up legal framework to punish subversion in Hong Kong
While we’re on China, there have also been some significant announcements coming out of the Congress about Hong Kong.
China’s proposed new legislation for Hong Kong requires the territory to quickly finish enacting national security regulations under its mini-constitution, the Basic law, according to a draft of the legislation seen by Reuters.
China’s parliamentary vice chairman, Wang Chen, was scheduled to give a speech explaining the new law later on Friday.
According to the legislation, China’s parliament empowers itself to set up the legal framework and implementation mechanism to prevent and punish subversion, terrorism, separatism and foreign interference, “or any acts that severely endanger national security”.
Reuters China Breaking News Editor, Vincent Lee, gives his view on the day’s events so far.
Today might be the most chaotic day of work ever for doing China stuff and that is no small feat
— Vincent Lee (@Rover829) May 22, 2020
Updated
More on the announcements coming out of China’s National People’s Congress. Ahead of the meeting, which is largely rubber-stamp parliament, China’s top leaders promised to step up stimulus to bolster the virus-ravaged economy amid rising worries that job losses could threaten social stability.
In addition to targeting a 2020 budget deficit of at least 3.6% of GDP, above last year’s 2.8%, and fixed the quota on local-government special bond issuance at 3.75 trillion yuan ($527 billion), up from 2.15 trillion yuan, China will also issue 1 trillion yuan in special treasury bonds for the first time this year.
Local government bonds could be mainly used to fund infrastructure projects, while special treasury bonds could be used to support firms and regions hit by the coronavirus outbreak, for subsidies to spur consumption or for boosting the capital structure of small banks, analysts say.
China's key policy targets/goals for the year
— Vincent Lee (@Rover829) May 22, 2020
A. No GDP target
B. Budget deficit at least 3.6% of GDP
C. CPI target of 3.5%
D. 1 Trlnyuan in special treasury bonds
E. Cut corporate fees/taxes by 2.5 trln yuan
E. Defense budget to rise 6.6%
Updated
China abandons GDP target for first time
China has taken the rare move of not setting an annual GDP target this year after the coronavirus battered the world’s second-largest economy and ravaged global growth, Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday.
It is the first time that China has not set target since the government began publishing such goals in 1990.
Instead, given “great uncertainty” caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Beijing will “give priority to stabilising employment and ensuring living standards”, Li told the opening of the National People’s Congress.
He also announced that China’s fiscal deficit was expected to be over 3.6% of gross domestic product this year, with a deficit increase of one trillion yuan ($140bn) over last year.
Another one trillion yuan of government bonds will be issued for Covid-19 control, he added, calling these “extraordinary measures for an unusual time”.
He also said governments at all levels should “tighten their belts”, and that all types of surplus, idle and carryover funds will be withdrawn and re-allocated, to be put to better use.
It is the first time since 1990 officials have decided not to issue a numerical growth target, which is typically seen as a signal of the resources leaders are willing to spend to shore up the economy.
China’s economy contracted 6.8% in the first quarter, compared to a year earlier.
At the annual meeting, Li said China would work with the US to implement phase one of the trade deal, which was struck before the pandemic was declared. He said China would safeguard multilateral trade and advance free-trade agreement talks with Japan and South Korea.
Li also reiterated China’s policy on Taiwan, which has been the subject of discussion this week due to Taiwan being excluded from the World Health Assembly. Li said Beijing will firmly safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, and would encourage Taiwan’s people to oppose independence for Taiwan.
Updated
US first families pay tribute to ex-White House butler dies from Covid-19
Tributes from former first families have rolled in after the death from Covid-19 of Wilson Jerman, a former White House butler who was a fixture in Washington under 11 presidents.
Jerman, who was 91, started working as a cleaner under Dwight Eisenhower and retired as an elevator operator during the presidency of Barack Obama.
“With his kindness and care, Wilson Jerman helped make the White House a home for decades of first families, including ours,” said Michelle Obama.
“His service to others his willingness to go above and beyond for the country he loved and all those whose lives he touched is a legacy worthy of his generous spirit.”
Wilson Roosevelt Jerman, former White House butler who served through 11 presidencies, dies of COVID-19 https://t.co/7pCdTAUNuj pic.twitter.com/b6JhNPB85g
— The Hill (@thehill) May 20, 2020
Jerman became a White House butler under John Kennedy, a role that JFK’s wife, Jackie, was instrumental in landing for him, his oldest granddaughter, Jamila Garrett, told the local Fox news channel in Washington.
“Jerman served as a White House butler across 11 presidencies and made generations of first families feel at home, including ours,” wrote Hillary Clinton. “Our warmest condolences to his loved ones.”
Updated
Japan records first consumer price drop in three years
Consumer prices in Japan fell for the first time in more than three years last month, official data shows, dragged down by the coronavirus pandemic and collapsing oil prices.
Core prices in April, excluding volatile fresh food, slipped 0.2%t from a year earlier, reversing a rise of 0.4 % in March, according to the internal affairs ministry.
It was the first drop in 40 months, the ministry said, and larger than a 0.1% drop predicted by economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Month-on-month, prices fell 0.5 % following a drop of 0.1% in March.
Government data on Monday showed Japan had dived into its first recession since 2015 in the first quarter of the year and some economists warned the worst was yet to come.
Australia seeks exemption from UK quarantine rules
Australia is seeking an exemption from a requirement that travellers arriving in the UK quarantine for 14 days to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The British government is planning a 14-day quarantine for most people arriving in the country in the coming weeks to try to prevent a second peak of the pandemic, with details to be finalised next month.
Heathrow Airport has proposed Britain should set up “travel bubbles” with low-risk countries exempt from the requirement.
“Australia has led the world in the successful containment of Covid-19, which clearly means that travellers coming from Australia would pose a low risk to the rest of the world,” the trade minister, Simon Birmingham said in a statement.
Birmingham said Australia has no plans to open its borders to non-citizens, while all returning locals will still have to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival.
Australia has recorded just over 7,000 cases, with 101 deaths. The country hopes to reopen the economy fully by July.
Updated
And on a serious note on President Trump, he has just tweeted that he has asked for all flags on federal buildings and national monuments to fly at half mast for the next three days, honouring victims of the virus.
I will be lowering the flags on all Federal Buildings and National Monuments to half-staff over the next three days in memory of the Americans we have lost to the CoronaVirus....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 21, 2020
And here he is explaining that he did wear a mask for some of the time at his visit to a Ford plant in Michigan, but he didn’t wear it all the time because he didn’t want to “give the press the pleasure of seeing it”.
This isn't normal behavior. The president is not well. https://t.co/MIle1KCscT
— S.E. Cupp (@secupp) May 21, 2020
President Trump’s confusing statement today on his latest coronavirus test, has made it to Tiktok. The president said he had tested positively, in that he had tested negative.
First the President’s version...and then Sarah Cooper on Tiktok, whose videos lip-syncing Trump have been widely viewed.
Here is a quote from Trump:
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 21, 2020
"I tested very positively in another sense so— this morning. Yeah. I tested positively toward negative, right. So. I tested perfectly this morning. Meaning I tested negative." pic.twitter.com/xA0DBUcfr9
I tested very positively pic.twitter.com/lp4fE2bbai
— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) May 21, 2020
Updated
British PM, Boris Johnson, has instructed civil servants to make plans to end UK’s reliance on China for vital medical supplies and other strategic imports in light of the coronavirus outbreak, The Times newspaper reported on Friday.
The plans, which have been code named “Project Defend”, include identifying Britain’s main economic vulnerabilities to potentially hostile foreign governments as part of a broader new approach to national security, the newspaper reported, adding that the efforts are being led by the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab.
Italy's Covid-19 deaths could be 19,000 higher than official toll
Italy’s death toll from Covid-19 in March and April could be nearly 19,000 higher than the official figure of 32,000, the national social security agency said Thursday.
The Istituto Nazionale della Previdenza Sociale (INPS), the largest social security and welfare institute in Italy, said in a new study that the official death figures were not “reliable”.
Its study showed that 156,429 total deaths were recorded in Italy in March and April, which is 46,909 higher than the average number of fatalities in those months recorded between 2015 and 2019.
But only 27,938 deaths linked to coronavirus were reported during that period by the Civil Protection Agency, whose toll forms the basis of national statistics.
That meant there were 18,971 more deaths than normal during this period, with the vast majority of 18,412 recorded in the coronavirus-ravaged north of the country.
Still in Russia and the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, was on Thursday reportedly being treated for coronavirus in Moscow according to Russian news agencies.
The 43-year-old calls himself the Kremlin’s “foot soldier” but is widely thought to enjoy carte blanche from Moscow, which turns a blind eye to heavy-handed tactics in his North Caucasus fiefdom in exchange for loyalty.
Russia industrial output drops 6.5% in April
Russia’s industrial output fell by 6.6% in April compared to the previous year, dampened by the country’s coronavirus lockdown, the state statistics agency said Thursday.
Russia imposed a “non-working” period across the country at the end of April which “served as the decisive factor in lowering industrial output,” Rosstat said in a statement.
Industries were delivered a double blow as President Vladimir Putin ordered companies to stop work activities but continue paying salaries.
At the same time, “consumer demand fell for a range of goods and services,” the agency said.
However it reported a surge in demand for some products, including food, household products and laptops, sought as people began telecommuting.
Russia’s commodities sector only decreased by 3.2% year-on-year, and oil production actually grew by 0.2%, the agency said, noting that for many of those companies ceasing activity was not possible.
The Russian economy has already been battered by low prices of oil, a key export shaken by a price war with Saudi Arabia in March which sent the Russian ruble tumbling.
Pharmaceutical industries showed growth of 13.5% year on year, while the automotive sector was the worst-hit, plummeting by 79.2%.
Updated
Still on Brazil, and President Jair Bolsonaro, a long-running advocate of malaria drug chloroquine to treat Covid-19, said on Thursday he knew there was no proof it works, but said there are cases in which it appears to have been successful, Reuters reports.
On Wednesday, Brazil’s health ministry issued new guidelines for the wider use of anti-malarial drugs in mild coronavirus cases, in defiance of public health experts warning of possible health risks.
The interim health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, an army general, authorised the use after two doctors left the ministry’s top job under pressure to promote early use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.
The new guidelines suggested dosage for the anti-malarials along with the antibiotic azithromycin at the onset of symptoms. Patients or family members would have to sign a waiver recognising potential side effects.
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Brazil passes 20,000 deaths
Brazil has had another terrible day with coronavirus figures passing the 20,000 Covid-19 deaths, as the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Philips, reports:
Brazil has just passed another grim coronavirus milestone, with more than 20,000 deaths from Covid-19 now officially confirmed here.
On Thursday evening Brazil’s health ministry announced a daily record of 1,188 deaths confirmed in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of officially recorded deaths to 20,047.
Brazil also confirmed another 18,508 infections, taking the total number to 310,087. That is the third highest number in the world, after the US and Russia.
Despite Brazil’s rising death toll the country’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, continues to downplay the dangers of the coronavirus, which he has repeatedly dismissed as “a bit of a cold” and “a little flu”.
On Thursday, just hours before the new death toll was announced, Bolsonaro claimed the pandemic’s threat had been exaggerated with “a great deal of propaganda”.
“This has brought dread to the heart of the Brazilian family,” Bolsonaro complained.
Sub-notification and low rates of testing mean the real number of infections and deaths are likely to be s
Trump declines to wear mask, calls for churches to open
It’s been another controversial day in the US for President Trump, who visited a Ford plant in the crucial battle state of Michigan.
Trump toured the Ford plant, which has been recast to produce ventilators and personal protective equipment, without wearing a face mask in front of TV cameras. This was despite Ford on Tuesday reiterating its policy that all visitors must wear them.
Surrounded by Ford executives who were wearing masks, Trump told reporters he had put one on out of the view of cameras,
“I had one on before. I wore one in the back area. I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,” Trump said.
Trump starts his tour of Ford’s Rawsonville Plant with four executives in face masks. He isn’t wearing one. pic.twitter.com/GZm6FTdEcv
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) May 21, 2020
When asked if Trump was told it was acceptable not to wear a mask in the plant, Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford said, “It’s up to him.”
“Honestly I think I look better in a mask,” Trump added jokingly.
Trump has been highly critical of the state’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer, who is seen as a potential vice presidential running mate for Joe Biden.
On Thursday the president called for churches to reopen and said guidelines on that should be issued soon.
Guardian US’s Joanna Walters says it looks like the president is putting pressure on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue guidelines of some kind that will indicate it’s okay to restart in-person services.
Walters says Trump made an eyebrow-raising statement a little earlier when he told a gathering of African American leaders: “We are opening our churches again. I think the CDC is going to put something out very soon, spoke to them today. I think they are going to put something out very soon. We got to open our churches.”
The president said the guidance was expected today or tomorrow. “I said you better put it out and they’re doing it and they’re going to be issuing something today or tomorrow and churches are going to get our churches open,” Trump said.
Leading federal public health officials have repeatedly urged caution about easing social distancing restrictions, warning it could cause a surge in coronavirus infections.
You can read all of our US coverage on our US blog here.
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Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s ongoing live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Donald Trump has promised that he is working on plans to allow churches to hold Sunday services again, and “you’re going to see something come out very soon”. He made his remarks at a Ford factory in Michigan, where he did not wear a mask, despite, the state’s attorney general writing an open letter to him yesterday saying the president had “not only a legal responsibility, but also a social and moral responsibility” to wear a mask during his tour. Trump has locked horns with Michigan’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer, over the states lockdown rules and restrictions.
In other coronavirus developments.
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Brazil’s death toll from Covid-19 has passed 20,000, after a daily record of 1,188 deaths announced on Thursday. The country’s surge in cases and fatalities comes despite President Bolsonaro’s assertion that the virus was nothing more than “a little flu”.
- Russia’s industrial output fell by 6.6% in April compared to the previous year, dampened by the country’s coronavirus lockdown, according to the state statistics agency Rosstat.
- Italy’s coronavirus death toll in March and April could be nearly 19,000 higher than the official figure of 32,000, the national social security agency said on Thursday.
- Indonesia recorded its biggest one-day jump in cases with 973 new infections. It now has the highest death toll in Asia outside China, at 1,278.
- Austria’s hotels will reopen as planned on 29 May, chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced on Thursday.
- Puerto Rico will cautiously reopen beaches, restaurants, churches, malls and hair salons next week under strict new rules as the US territory emerges from a two-month lockdown that stifled business activity on an island already beset with economic woes.
- Half of Facebook’s workforce could shift to permanent home working by the end of the decade, founder Mark Zuckerberg has revealed
Let’s get started.
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